Charles Clay: 'It hasn't gone as I planned'

[LDaniel7]

This year, Clay has caught 14 of 21 throws for 111 yards, 1 drop, and 53 of those yards came after contact with causing 4 missed tackles. He caught 5 of 5 for 9 yards behind the line, where last year he caught a total of 7 for the year. He is 6 of 10 0-9 yards for 46 yards, and 3 of 6 10-19 yards for 56 yards.

From what I have seen, the injury has hurt him, and so has the way the team has used him. IF the knee is fine, he will be as well for the next 12 games.

Go back and look at the matchups Clay is getting.

A good (not even great) TE would be DOMINATING those matchups.

Clay -- not even close to domination. Struggles to separate and big time struggles to make the contested catch. Less physical than the LBs and way less fast than the DBs.

It's more of the same w. the Miami syndrome of late-round draft picks and UDFAs forced into starting duty because there simply isn't high caliber NFL talent on the roster.

Clay simply isn't an impact TE. He's a slash/hybrid playing TE.

Forced into duty as a starter by injury, he's not covering himself w. glory even though the matchups are favorable.

LD

 

[sm0kinfins]

I was thinking more along the lines of....
[video=youtube;TtYA0VQGBLM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtYA0VQGBLM[/video]

The Chiefs understand the value a good TE brings to the team. We never have for some reason.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Can we finally go draft a 6'6+ seam threat TE?

This, but not to replace Clay. To complement Clay. He's a mismatch player, and having another mismatch player at TE would make this team real dangerous.

We'll see if Gator Hoskins can be that guy, but I don't know if he can be, or is ready for it.

 

[So Be]

Go back and look at the matchups Clay is getting.

A good (not even great) TE would be DOMINATING those matchups.

Clay -- not even close to domination. Struggles to separate and big time struggles to make the contested catch. Less physical than the LBs and way less fast than the DBs.

It's more of the same w. the Miami syndrome of late-round draft picks and UDFAs forced into starting duty because there simply isn't high caliber NFL talent on the roster.

Clay simply isn't an impact TE. He's a slash/hybrid playing TE.

Forced into duty as a starter by injury, he's not covering himself w. glory even though the matchups are favorable.

LD

That's fair. He caught 14 of 21. Five were behind the line, and there were no favorable match ups, which brings us to 9 of 16. Pats game a 21 yarder, Buff a 12 yarder, and Oakland a 17 yarder. Don't think those can be considered as a problem.

So, that leaves us with 6 catches over 4 games where you think he should have dominated more than he did. No much there, and he did have the problem with his knee. Everyone had to see that.

 

[datruth55]

The Chiefs understand the value a good TE brings to the team. We never have for some reason.

Hickey's had one draft. He can't get every single player we need plus there were only two TEs in the last draft worth a pick IMO.

I guess since everyone wants a 6'6" TE we'll have to draft Blake Bell, the converted QB, from Oklahoma. None of the top TEs in the upcoming draft are that tall.

 

[Dthrill_08]

I was thinking more along the lines of....
[video=youtube;TtYA0VQGBLM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtYA0VQGBLM[/video]

I remember the 2013 Draft. Not a lot of people on these boards where talking about Kelce.

 

[Travis34]

I still think he's a good player. Never thought he was elite. I just want him to start producing. He's a critical piece. Hopefully he's all healed up!

Very true. Doubt he will ever be "elite" but very good works for me with all the other pieces... or pieces to come too. He's been a huge let down this year though

 

[Tannenbombs]

Kudos to Hickey for not overpaying for 1 year of production. I'd like him back but at a modest rate. He's a good H-Back but he can't block inline and he isn't a redzone or seam threat. Still need a "true" tight end like Kelce.

I hate to break it to you, but this draft does not possess a strong tight end class.

 

[hoops]

what's the deal with lazors old staple jake mcgee when he was at uva...i havent seen him on the field at florida...i thought he was eligible to play right away...

i don't really consider kelce to be a true tight end in all aspects but god that kids physically gifted and a smooth athlete...moves really well for his size...home run for kc for sure

 

[sm0kinfins]

Hickey's had one draft. He can't get every single player we need plus there were only two TEs in the last draft worth a pick IMO.

I guess since everyone wants a 6'6" TE we'll have to draft Blake Bell, the converted QB, from Oklahoma. None of the top TEs in the upcoming draft are that tall.

My statement wasn't meant to be an indictement against Hickey and company. I meant that in general we've never seemed to place a lot of value on the position.

 

[So Be]

My statement wasn't meant to be an indictement against Hickey and company. I meant that in general we've never seemed to place a lot of value on the position.

Egnew, Sims, and Keller?

 

[datruth55]

Egnew, Sims, and Keller?

Egnew was a huge reach...hated that pick. Sims was a 4th round pick, that's not really placing a high value on the position...that's more like, we need an inline blocker. Keller was a free agent, and an injury prone one at that. Ireland signed him because he knew he could get him cheap and only signed him for a year. Out of all of those I think Egnew was the one that Ireland made an attempt on to "fix" the issue for good. Unfortunately Ireland, being the idiot that he is, failed to grab a TE in 2010 when the draft was overloaded with playmakers. We had a shot at Jermaine Gresham, Rob Gronkowski, Jimmy Graham, Aaron Hernandez and Dennis Pitta...all of which turned out to be pretty good (and one a murderer but that's another story). There were a lot of angry Dolphin fans in the draft forum after that draft because we needed a TE and Ireland failed...again.

And I remember plenty of people wanted us to take Tyler Eifert in 2013 or Zach Ertz and we passed on both of those guys. It was pretty clear that Ireland didn't value skill position players...he valued D-line and O-line and that's usually what he drafted in the first two rounds of the majority of his drafts.

 

[nick1]

I really wanted Jimmy Graham I knew he would be good

 

[LDaniel7]

I remember the 2013 Draft. Not a lot of people on these boards where talking about Kelce.

That's wrong. Some people were VERY high on Kelce, including CK.

A strong segment of people here wanted Kelce.

LD

 

[LDaniel7]

That's fair. He caught 14 of 21. Five were behind the line, and there were no favorable match ups, which brings us to 9 of 16. Pats game a 21 yarder, Buff a 12 yarder, and Oakland a 17 yarder. Don't think those can be considered as a problem.

So, that leaves us with 6 catches over 4 games where you think he should have dominated more than he did. No much there, and he did have the problem with his knee. Everyone had to see that.

How many times could he not be targeted because he couldn't separate or present himself as a proper target?

it's not just the targets you must look at, to evaluate his play.

And some of those drops were simply horrible, others just smh stuff. When the sure TD pass clanged off his hands in the back of the endzone -- with ONLY A DB contesting it! really?

A real TE goes up and highpoints that, bodies out the DB and makes the catch, making a DB play through his body to contest.

People trying to make Clay's performance so far better than what it is -- better use some of this: